


for the past couple weeks i've felt kinda great

by arindo



Category: Waterparks (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, D&D, Dungeons and Dragons, Gen, i give up on tagging
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-17
Updated: 2018-11-17
Packaged: 2019-08-24 22:17:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16648880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arindo/pseuds/arindo
Summary: The Parx Boys play D&D. That’s it. Seriously.





	for the past couple weeks i've felt kinda great

**Author's Note:**

> s/o to my pal roxie for the random tumblr convo that spurred this ridiculous idea, and my cat because :3

“Shit, dude, how’d you end up with so much gold?”

Geoff scoffs, like it’s obvious. “I’m a rogue. I steal shit. It’s what I do.”

“Yikes,” Awsten says, hands raised in surrender. “Not like I can buy enchanted musical instruments at a general store.”

“You can, actually,” Jawn says in a weird voice that’s not his own. Awsten always gets a kick out of it when he tries to play NPCs. “But they’re all over 200 gold.”

“Well fuck me, then,” Awsten mutters.

“Prostitution is illegal, Awsten,” Otto says, clearly not paying any attention at all whatsoever.

“There’s no cell phones in D&D!” Awsten retorts. “Stop texting your fucking girlfriend and get back in the game.”

“I’m texting my mom, dickhead,” Otto glares over his phone. “And like, warlocks don’t really need to buy anything… right? We have… spells.”

“You might want to buy magic channeling rods, or spellbooks. Or just a simple weapon, in case you run out of spell slots mid-battle,” Geoff names off the top of his head. Jawn nods in agreement. Awsten hates when he takes Geoff’s side. Maybe we don’t understand everything about D&D, like some people.

“Nerd.”

~*~  


Awsten is barely paying attention in class, but thankfully he catches the note Jawn slips him across the gap of the desks.

_ Gotta skip this week, dr. appt  _

Awsten tries to glare back, but Jawn is seemingly enthralled in his notes. 

_ Can’t we change the day? _

Jawn writes on the back of the note, not looking down. Awsten receives the note back, trying to read the skewed handwriting.

_ My turn to host this week. You wanna host again? _

Awsten weighs his options. Either wait a week to fight this golem, or play right now and level up like a fucking badass. 

_ My place again, sure. My mom still hates you for last month. _

_ I’ll bring cookies. _

The bell rings. Awsten and Jawn let out their breaths. 

~*~

Two weeks later, Otto hosts. The best thing about Otto’s house is that his parents are never home to listen to what they’re doing, but the bad thing is that he has an excuse to invite his girlfriend.

“For the last damn time,” Jawn says, “you can’t roll yourself a character. If you’re not gonna be here every session, then you can’t be in the campaign.” Grace pouts and Awsten knows Otto’s gonna be a little bitch and hug her again.  _ Keep the PDA to a minimum, God. _

“You can still play NPCs, though. Like, you can be this shopkeeper,” Geoff reasons. Jawn can’t argue.

Grace immediately regains her composure, saying in a really dumb voice “What can I do for you boys?” which makes Awsten choke into his soda laughing and makes Otto’s cheeks flush embarrassingly.

“I roll to fuck the shopkeeper,” Otto mumbles, to which Grace says “Anything for you, daddy,” and Jawn is quick to reply “The shopkeeper is shot dead from an arrow that pierces the window of the entryway.”

It’s really funny. Even Geoff laughs. Awsten thinks Grace might have cried.

~*~

To be totally honest, Awsten likes playing D&D. Even though some of his friends are sticklers about the rules (Geoff) and some don’t know how to even play at all (Otto) it’s still fun. He has to admit that when Jawn says “and that’s where we’ll stop” Awsten is always upset by it. It’s like this never ending game he gets to play with his closest friends, and he’ll-

“Dude, are you daydreaming again?” Travis pokes Awsten in the shoulder multiple times, even though he knows Awsten is paying attention. “Listen, can we partner for this, I hate doing all the work.” 

The bell rings. “I think I already told Jawn I would partner with him,” Awsten says, packing his bag. Travis groans. Awsten laughs a little, but he’s kinda relieved his friend isn’t putting up a fight, because the only reason he’s partnering with Jawn is so they can have one-off sessions when they hang out at each other’s houses. 

“Wait, there’s an odd number of people in our class! Why don’t we be a group of three?” Travis asks. Awsten pretends to ignore him as they continue walking down the hallway. “Come on, asshole, I know you hear me. Besides whatever’s going on with you and Jawn will be safe with me.”  


Awsten gives his friend a questioning look. Him and Jawn? “We don’t have a thing. Where the hell’d you get that idea from?”  


“You always pass notes in class,” Travis reasons.  


“Maybe we’re just saying things we couldn’t wait until after class to say,” Awsten rolls his eyes.  _ Things other people would easily judge us for, _ he thinks. “Maybe we’re planning a mass shooting.”

“Pfft,” Travis laughs. “The most harm you’d do to a person is break up with them, geez.” Awsten cringes and thinks,  _ cold _ .

They sit down at their usual lunch table, where Jawn, Geoff, and Otto (plus Grace) are already sitting. “Travis wants to have a threesome,” Awsten says to Jawn. Jawn looks up briefly, but Awsten isn’t meeting his eyes as he unpacks his lunch. Jawn shrugs.

“So you’ll let me partner with you guys?” Travis asks hopefully, giving Jawn puppy-dog eyes.

Jawn sighs. Awsten glares briefly. Geoff and Otto look at each other for a second.

“Come on,” Travis tries again. “Whatever you guys all have going on, I won’t tell anyone. I just miss my friends, okay? So tell me what it is. Is it a band?”

Awsten immediately snorts. “A  _ band _ ? Have you seen how awful Otto is at bass?” Otto flips him off.

Jawn finally gives in. “We’re all hanging out at my place on Thursday after school. You can swing by if you want.” Awsten opens his mouth but Jawn interrupts saying “Hey. My house, my rules. Besides,” he adds quietly, “last time this went sideways we never saw the kid again. That was two years ago.” Awsten lets out a breath and Travis whoops.

~*~

Awsten was really glad that Travis didn’t make fun of him or the rest of the guys. (“I honestly thought it was like, an orgy,” Travis says. “But this is way cooler. Can I play?”) 

The first times Travis came to hang he played NPCs like Grace would, but then after begging Otto if he could come to his house, Travis said he would roll himself up a new character. Geoff made this dumb rule that he couldn’t be the same race or class as anyone else, but Travis was just excited to finally play. (He ended up being a cleric. “Finally, we have a healer,” Jawn had said.)

One day, when Jawn is supposed to host, he gets sick. Awsten suggests to host again, and even Travis offers, but Jawn waves them off and says it would be okay. He also keeps mentioning that he has a friend coming over that has his own character that will feature in this session. They know that it never took too much effort to do a off-plot session anyway. 

The four players (Awsten, Geoff, Otto, and Travis) all stick around in the basement to try to pick a movie to watch after the session. Awsten calls up the stairs to Jawn, yelling “You’d better still buy pizza!” and the lack of response says nothing, but Awsten knows he could be heard from outer space. 

While Otto and Geoff fight over which High School Musical, Jawn comes down the stairs. “Hey, so, I didn’t mention this,” he lets out a watery cough, “But I can’t DM today. Uh, sickness and all. My friend just came by though, and he’s gonna DM, if that’s cool with you guys.” The others couldn’t really find a reason to argue about it, as long as they played. “Ah, shit, forgot to bring down drinks. I’ll be right back,” and Jawn trotted up the stairs again. 

Otto had slowly been sneaking The Little Mermaid into the DVD player, and Geoff hears the tray open and jumps on him. “Mulan or death!” 

Travis is face-first in the couch, but Awsten could still make out the muffled “Who’s our DM now?” Awsten says he honestly doesn’t know, when he hears footsteps descending the stairs. Thinking it’s Jawn, Awsten sits up. Otto and Geoff briefly stop fighting. It’s not Jawn.

“Hey,” the guy waves. He’s tall, and he’s wearing glasses that make him look more like a nerd than the rest of them. “I’m Mikey. I heard you needed a DM today?”

**Author's Note:**

> thanx for reading :P


End file.
